LOS ANGELES -- The Walt Disney Co., through its Buena Vista Television subsidiary, on Friday announced plans to put two hours of expensive, original cartoon programming on weekday afternoons by the 1990 fall season.
The foundation of 'The Disney Afternoon' is a $30-million animated series called 'Tale Spin,' an action-adventure series featuring daredevil pilots, Disney executives said at a news conference in Los Angeles. The series' initial run is slated for 65 episodes.
'Tale Spin' will be the most expensive animated series ever on television, said Richard Frank, president of Walt Disney Studios. Its $400,000-per-episode cost tops only Disney's 'Duck Tales,' which carries a $25-million-a-season price tag.
Both cartoon series will air each day along with the current Disney program -- 'The Gummi Bears' -- and 'Chip n' Dale's Rescue Rangers,' a new series that premieres next fall.
The package is aimed primarily at independent television stations worldwide. As a two-hour program, 'The Disney Afternoon' will likely cost$100 million a season to produce, Disney executives said.
The expense is worth it, though, Frank said, because 'there is a growing market for animated programming that is not designed to sell a toy. We have a 50-episode backorder of network requests for programming that we can't meet because it takes time to produce shows that meet our quality standards.'
Frank said Disney is getting back into television animation because the growing market and the success of Disney's branded products worldwide will pay for the expensive, hand-illustrated animation the company prefers.
'We had to find ways to pay for this first,' Frank said.
Disney's announcement came two days after movie producer Steven Spielberg said he is getting into television animation with 'Tiny Tunes,' a series introducing new characters slated for its syndicated debut next year through Warner Bros. Television.
'He saw how good a business we had,' Frank said of Spielberg's effort. 'If anyone can pull off quality animation, he can. On the other hand, we've been at it for a long time and he's now getting into our business.'
